Tomb Raider- Sacred Treasures # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

Lara Croft has had several adventures in the world of comic books and one of her longest runs was the Top Cow run based on her original mid-90's version. Now she's back in a four part mini series from Dark Horse comics. I pre-ordered this one at Alpha Comics when I heard of a new series coming out 'in 2026' and it came here faster than expected. Let's check it out. 

 

The story opens with Kate Cheney on her show 'Kate at Eight' as she interviews Lara Croft who has been out of the public eye for over a year. Croft Manor was nearly destroyed in a fire and Lara has been busy with renovations for 14 months alongside her butler, Winston Smith. Kate says she can't believe someone like Lara had just busy with renovation and wants details. She notes a cut alongside Lara's chin and asks if she got it after a run-in with a rival or from an encounter with another Egyptian god. Lara tells her not to believe everything in the tabloids.

 

Lara explains that she had a fortunate life and has seen the world, but after the fire she needed to restore her inner peace. Lara says almost losing the manor gave her the time to truly appreciate its legacy. As she explains how she went about her home renovations, we see that Lara was actually scaling a mountain in Andalusia, Spain. She makes it to the top and finds a cave. Even though the cave was supposed to be deserted and drones picked up no activity in months, Lara found hiking gear just outside the cave. Once she ventures inside, she leaps across a chasm and finds a rope ladder. When she makes it to the top, someone tries to knock her off by kicking her in the face.

Kate thinks Lara got the cut from the renovations and asks about the highlights of the new and improved manor. Lara mentions opening the library once it's restored. Kate asks if it will be open to the public and if it will need heavy security. Lara says she hasn't worked out all he details. Kate asks what made her come to that decision. Lara says she had a hard time after the fire. She needed to disconnect from everything but it was impossible to remember who she was before.

 

We see Lara relaxing in bed and letting her phone ring. She tosses her cell into the bathroom sink (or toilet?). When she checks her laptop, she gets a DM telling her to answer her phone she is going to want this job. She hears a knock on her door and sees that it's her butler with a bag of her things. Winston helps her get dressed and ready for this very interview. He even found the phone she tossed... somehow.

Kate asks what got her into philanthropy, and Lara says she got tired of raiding dusty tombs, which we can tell she doesn't really mean. Kate asks for details on the fire since the news was vague about the cause. Lara agrees with her.  

Lara says the official reason was arson, though she never knew who did it. She adds that whoever did must not have been in their right mind. The investigation was thorough and security was beefed up to protect the new manor. We see a splash panel that shows that the manor was burned by Lara's evil doppelganger created by her enemy Natla, as seen in the game Tomb Raider Underworld.

 

Kate compliments Lara's accomplishments and she says it's nothing someone with half a brain, a little ambition and a massive trust fund couldn't accomplish. She tells Kate she has heard all of the criticism before. Kate asks how that makes her feel. Lara says she know she's privileged and was able to succeed in part due to her wealth and family connections. She has also done the work and is smart and focused, and has a thick skin. Kate asked about the people that call her a thief. She says she's aware of them.

We flashback to the cave in Spain as Lara confronts the man that kicked her in the face. Lara asks the masked man if he came to play chase. He says he came to raid, and asks which one will get to it first and who deserves it more. He draws a knife. Lara says it depends on which one is more prepared. She tosses her torch at the man's face, making him drop the knife. She grabs his knife and leaps across another chasm. As she heads towards a wall with an object on display. Chase flips overhead and lands in front of her. He says skill will always be superior to stunts. Lara socks him in the mid-section.

Chase asks if Lara is wondering who he is and how he knows her name. Lara isn't interested and does a cartwheel kick, knocking the man back as he tried to dive towards her. As Lara runs off, the man mentions it's funny how they're both there on the same mission at the same time. He says he comes from a place of reverence, to postulate for the item's powers. He says Lara is just a dull little thief and asks her if she plans to show off the object to her rich friends, or display it in a museum with a plaque with her name. He asks if Lara will leave it in the halls of 'crumbling halls of Croft Manor' like its sister dagger. 

 

The man fires off a grappling hook, which knocks Lara off the platform. The man walks towards the wall with the precious blade. The man asks if Lara is gone. He said he had plans for her, but getting rid of her this way was cleaner. Lara was still alive, scaling her way back up the platform.

The man prepares to take the blade, but Lara appears behind him and hits him on the back of the head with the hilt of the knife she grabbed earlier. Lara gets the blade and puts in her bag. The man dives towards Lara, but side-steps him leaving him to lunge past her. Lara watches as he falls to his death.

 

Later on, Lara now has the blade in a display case back home. She has a descriptive plaque, describing the blades as the Xian Dagger and the Scythian Dagger, The Xian Dagger was said to have transmogrification powers that could turn the user into a dragon. While its power was neutralized, the Scythian Dagger could not be ignored. The last known devotees of the Xian Dagger were the Fiamma Nera, but nothing has been seen of them in years. While Carter told her no one knew of the Scythian Blade, but at least one person knew.

Kate snaps Lara back to reality as she zoned out upon remembering her adventure. Lara is about to show Kate the library, but as she takes a peek inside, she sees that the display case is shattered and the knives are missing. There's a note saying from 'the Postulant' that says she's not the only one to survive a fall. The knife is with him and if Lara is interested in a rematch, he'll be doing research in Santandi. Lara closes the library door and tells Kate they should wrap up the interview up in the conservatory.

Once there, Kate asks Lara if she will miss her previous action packed life. Lara says she won't miss the constant dangers she faced and thinks it safer for peace of mind to stay away from the field. Kate asks about her colleagues Anaya Imanu, Zip and Carter. She says they're more like family and they'll find ways to keep working together, even Carter. 

The interview is over and Lara thanks Kate for her time. Winston asks Lara how things went and she says she has to make a call. Winston hands Lara her phone and asks what has her so fired up and focused, since it's clearly not the community library. Lara tells her butler to send the plans back to the architect and says the library will stay private. She'll love his help in organizing her inventory.

Lara calls Carter and asks how quickly he can get to Italy. She says the man was in her house and stole the knife. Carter is in Paris and Lara agrees to meet him there. She says they have to focus on getting the knife back before whoever has it decides to see if it's as ferocious a weapon as its sister. Something tells her that they might already know. As she says this, the Postulant shows the knife off to his followers.

My Thoughts- 

Most of the comic was a bit hard to summarizing since Lara's interview was downplaying her adventure and trying to make it sound as if she was stepping away from tomb raiding. However her casual dialogue about home renovations was overlaid onto what she was really up to, her adventure in Spain. The challenge was describing both properly.

So the comic seems to follow the events of one of her games, Tomb Raider Underworld, in which an evil doppelganger of Lara nearly burned down the manor to ashes. This kept Lara busy in between her adventures and fixing it back up. She found the Scythian Dagger and got past another guy that was after it. Now he came back and stole it right under her nose. The guy did have a point though. Both of them arriving at the cave to find the blade at the exact same time was rather odd.

Along with showing events from Underworld, this comic also throws in other characters from the games like Winston, her actual butler rather than the back-stabbing Compton from the Top Cow comics. There are also shout-outs to Carter, Zip and Anaya, all characters that have helped Lara throughout several games such as Tomb Raider Underworld and Tomb Raider Legend.

The art is pretty nice and clean, though I only have the Top Cow comics to compare it to. I have to keep reminding myself that this is going to be a new continuity. When Lara asked the masked guy if he 'wanted to play chase', the way 'chase' was in bold made me think of Chase Carver from the other comic series. I mean 'play chase' is such a weird line and the fact the word chase was in bold made me wonder if that was an intentional deep cut.

One notable thing missing from Lara were her trademark dual pistols. It seemed she arrived at the cave armed with nothing but a torch. She only had a knife because he managed to take it from the guy. The 90's Lara we know would have most likely be packing her own knife, but also her guns. We'll see if the brings them in the following issues. 

We'll see what happens next time. I'm always up for more Lara Croft. Maybe if this mini-series is a big enough hit, Dark Horse will consider making it an ongoing series?